Chris Anderson: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More
(*****)
Marcus Buckingham: Now, Discover Your Strengths
Great read! Consider this my "Book of the Month"! (*****)
Jacob Slichter: So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star : How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful Of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer's Life
For aspiring musicians who think they want to become professional. (*****)
Jim Collins: Good to Great : Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't
For those wanting to build and lead their organizations with excellence. (*****)
My wife started blogging a year or two ago, but without a reliable computer to call her own and a travel schedule that didn't allow much time for "extras", blogging was not a priority. Now things have changed - she has her own computer and is at home more often than not... The "time for extras" thing is still up for debate, but she has been able to carve out a little bit to get back into blogging. Take time today to stop by her blog - you'll be glad you did!
Mark has been using this new service recently and it looked kind of cool, so I thought I would give it a shot. It's called Skribit, and basically it gives you, the reader of my blog, an opportunity to give input on what topics you'd like me to blog about. Simply click on the "Suggestions" button on the widget in the left sidebar and give me your suggestion - then people can vote on what topics they'd like to see. This should help me make sure I'm covering content that you're actually interested in and not just blowing my own horn all the time (it IS my blog, so that will happen occasionally!)... So let me have it - what do you want to see here?
I was doing some research online yesterday and came across this website - the official Starbucks blog, called My Starbucks Idea. Now, I'm not a coffee drinker so Starbucks has never really had much attraction to me (especially since they've never had free wi-fi... but read on!). But I was REALLY impressed with what they're doing with this website. I would consider it one of the best corporate blogs I've seen in a long time, actually. And by "corporate" I don't mean dry, icky-business feeling - I simply mean that they seem to understand how to use a company blog to improve both their customer relations as well as their company as a whole.
Check it out and let me know what you think... (I don't think their version of "free wi-fi" is quite what I'm looking for yet, but hey - at least they're listening to their "fans"!)
I just lost a post I spent an hour working on. It was really good too (I thought!). I'm done for today...
Are you a texting fiend? If so, this website is for you. Twitter.com is one of the "new kids on the block" and seems to be making waves in the technology world. By using SMS technology, Twitter allows you to send updates to your "followers" from your phone directly to theirs. One "tweet" (text message) will go out to however many people are signed up to follow you. If you're familiar at all with Facebook.com and how their status update feature works, this is basically the same thing, except it goes directly to peoples' cell phones. In essence, this allows you to do what many are coining "microblogging" - there is a 140 character limit which basically allows you a couple of short sentences per "tweet". But the advantage is you can do from anywhere you are able to send text messages.
You'll notice I've added in the right-hand sidebar a list of my 5 most current "tweets" - you can follow along that way if you'd like. Or you can click on the "Follow Me on Twitter" link on the bottom (or just click here) and that will take you to my Twitter page where you can sign up to follow me there. I'm still getting used to it, but I can see the potential for a tool such as this. Just make sure you cell phone plan includes unlimited text messages - or else turn off the phone notifications before you sign up to follow anyone. That would be a nasty surprise in the mail!
I have been blogging for nearly 3 years now, and one of the things I have learned is that a blogger's most valuable asset is the trust of his/her readership. This is the precise reason why many corporations are now turning to blogging (and why you should contact me via Blogsites.biz if your company is not yet blogging and don't know where to start) - it is a way for the company to communicate directly with their consumer. And nothing is more detrimental to the well-being of a company than if they lose the trust of their consumer (just ask the folks at Enron).
So in the spirit of full disclosure and in an effort to maintain your trust, I want you to know that I have begun a new chapter with Normal Rockstar - a "2.0" of sorts. I have begun to entertain offers from various organizations/companies who are requesting my endorsement or support of their product. This will look different for various situations - sometimes I will be given free product in return for a blog post, sometimes I will be paid to post about something, etc. Any time I do a post like this, I will include the "$" image you see in the top right hand corner of this post - that way you will know that I was compensated in some way for the post.
Here is my guarantee to you: I will not post/endorse something that I do not agree with, use, believe in, or think would be of some interest to you simply because the offer was too good to pass up.
I am excited about this new phase of my blog. As my wife and I entertain the possibility of starting a family in the near future I am looking for creative ways to supplement my "rockstar" income, and this could be one of those. I don't know... I guess we'll see what happens!
My wife has been on me over the last couple of days to put together my Christmas wishlist for her and family. I always wrestle with this because I'm not great at keeping my "wishlist" in the proper budget range. However, I think I can come close this year, and that's why I'm soliciting your help.
Many of you are avid bloggers already, and that's why I'm asking for your input: I'm looking for a good, fairly inexpensive digital camera that will take web quality video as well. It must be compatible with Mac - I know some have had issues with getting the audio off the videos they took with their camera. It needs to be small/compact, too - I want to take this thing with me wherever I go and not think twice about it (our current digital camera is great but rather bulky).
So there you have it - any suggestions?
"After weeks of investigation, blogosphere authorities are happy to report that blogger Normal Rockstar (aka Jeremy Thiessen) was found alive and healthy unloading the bay of a tour bus this past weekend in Franklin, TN. According to Thiessen, his disappearance from the blogosphere was due to a number of circumstances including a crazy travel schedule, visiting family, and a selfish desire to spend all remaining time with his wife. However, he also stated that he felt a renewed desire to blog again and was looking forward to interacting with his faithful readers."
I'm back - looking forward to continuing the conversation.
[If you missed a recent post, I am trying to collect some information from my readers in order to serve you better. If you have a second and have not yet filled out the survey, click here. Thanks for your help!]
I've suggested this little application to a number of Mac bloggers now, and I figured I might as well pass it on to whoever else might find it helpful. Image Well is one of my favorite blogging tools - it makes adding images to my blog a snap. No longer do I need to open some robust image editing program (aka Adobe Photoshop) just to resize a picture. Instead, I just drag whatever image I am wanting to edit into Image Well, set the dimensions I want, and save it to my Blog Images folder. It's really that simple and user friendly - give it a shot! [HT: Michael Hyatt]
Technorati Tags: blogging, blogging tips, image editing, mac, productivity
I've been wanting to do this for a while, but it's taken me a little bit to actually figure out how to do it. I am in the process of updating my blog and working on some improvements, and in order for me to serve you as best as I can, it's time I figured out who was actually stopping by Normal Rockstar. I finally found this great website called Wufoo that has been AWESOME to use - very user friendly. So - drum roll please!! - I present to you my first survey:
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